India has no dearth of talent, whether it’s our ability to ‘adjust’ or being world-famous for ‘jugaad’. No doubts there! But, apparently, that’s not what the folks at IMD were looking at while making the ‘World Talent List’. This year’s ranking, which released on November 20, has India at an unimpressive 53rd rank out of the 63 countries, two spots behind last year. The top spot was once again clinched by Switzerland, which retained its title for the fifth consecutive year.

The rankings are dominated by European countries and are based on a nation’s capabilities in areas like workplace training, education, and language skills. Canada was the only non-European country in the top ten. In Asia, Singapore clinched the top spot with the 13th position globally in the list of 63 nations in developing, attracting and retaining talent. China, on the other hand, is ranked at 39th in the survey.

According to the report, India has slipped two places from 2017, when its rank was 51:

“On the one hand, the country performs above the average in terms of the quality of its talent pool (Readiness factor, 30th position). On the other, the quality of its educational system and the lack of investments in public education heavily penalise the talent potential of the country (Investment and Development factor, 63rd).”

The study surveyed over six thousand executives in 63 economies. According to Arturo Bris, director of the IMD World Competitiveness Center, IMD Business School, countries placed in the top 10, generally have a high quality of life which allows them to develop local human capital and attract highly-skilled professionals from abroad.